Social entrepreneurs awarded

Tanmay Telang, left, and Tran Trang of Fargreen (Photo courtesy of UW Foster School of Business)

The annual UW Foster School of Business Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition (GSEC) is an international competition in which students from around the world present business solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges — including poverty, health, and development. This year’s competition featured 19 semi-finalist teams from Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Uganda, and the United States — including two UW teams—competing for $40,000 in prizes. The winners were announced at a celebration dinner on Feb. 27.

The grand prize — $12,500 — went to Tanmay Telang and Tran Trang of Colorado State University for their project Fargreen, which uses zero waste farming technology to convert rice straw waste into a product that can be used for mushroom farming and the production of bio fertilizers in Vietnam.

The team AYUDA Food Aid from Ataneo de Manila University, Philippines, took both the Rotary prize ($2,500) and the Global Health prize ($10,000) for producing nutrition-dense ready-to-eat food bars for disaster victims. (end)